RP: The Fringe [Chapter 4.2] - Manhunt

[Luca]

Concordia Veil, Captain's Quarters
With the pocketed notebook page, Danny went to good lengths not to crinkle the paper, lest the message embedded into it descended into unintelligible scribbles. A magpie-like curiosity came over the strange Bounty Hunter as he realised that things were beginning not to add up properly in his relatively innocent worldview. Though, Desmond's orders did insist that he investigate. Maybe Danny was going to repeat meeting someone interesting, and having to disable them.

Leaving the cabin with the stuck door, he turned left out, sidestepping the couch, and then seeing if he could enter the next door. If there wasn't a keypad, he'd try and lever it open again. He whipped his baton back out and gave it a flourish in the darkness and gave a contented sigh now that the noises had stopped. Why could he hear the hatch opening in the distance? Were they compromised?

A little urgency went into his step as he opened the door, one way or another.

 

[Floodwaters]

Concordia Veil - Lounge

On his way out of the captain's cabin, the slight disturbance in the air caused by his passing through the doorway caused a slip of paper that had been wedged in the jammed-open door to come free and flutter to the ground. Evidently he'd missed it the first time, amid the flashing lights and sounds when he initially entered. It appeared to be a handwritten note of some sort, although it was barely legible, penned by someone with questionable practice in handwriting. Danny paused, bent down and picked up the note. More insight into the crew could be gleaned from this.

From The Desk of Stitchtech (a black line censors the next part of the name) 64-2206-4407 Fellow of the Fresspacer Collective of Surgeons

Your Personal Message System was rejecting messages from Six Four, your door was also ajar so seeing as you were not present or able to be reached in the present time this one has elected to leave you a note. A bit outdated in this ones opinion but due to previously mentioned unforeseen circumstances this one has to resort to drastic more barbarian measures. As per our conversation yesterday this one has left to obtain the shipment of medical supplies that you had purchased yesterday, Also as per our conversation yesterday Six Four apologizes for not being able to personally assist you. Judging from the list however you did a more than adequate job for someone who is not trained in the medical field. Please ignore that last sentence if it offends you, Six Four did not mean anything offensive by it, It is not the best at giving complements. This one will attempt to learn more about complements and if you have any input on recomended readings please feel free to inform.

PS. Please ignore that last sentence, it is illogical seeing as you cannot contact Six Four with this note until Six Four gets back thus making the suggestion point moot..

PPS. This one has also attached a copy of the materials that are being picked up to this note, please feel free to contact Six Four if anything needs to be changed.

PPPS. Please contact Six Four in another method other than this note, or any other note for that matter. This one dislikes notes.

PPPPS. This one will also look into services to get your comunicator fixed as well as stop for the intake of nutrients, from what this one understands there is a smoothie bar which is selling two for one, this is apparently a good deal. This one doesn't understand however how two can be one, perhaps conjoined drinks or quantum physics.

64

On the foot of the note, it appeared this "64" had scribbled some math equations attempting to solve the quandary of a two for one special. Written on the back was a list of various medical supplies as noted, although there seemed to be a disproporitionate amount of the drug Qualen in the order. Danny scratched his head as he flipped the page over back and forth - this was the medical list and it'd be about the length of your forearm if you printed it onto a receipt. Of course, while he was getting more insight, he was also getting more and more information that he had to process and correlate together to make some sort of sense. "Desmond, they seem to have a Freespacer on crew," he relayed over quietly. "Who likes ... Abwehran painkillers. Okay then," he mumbled as he moved on.

Stepping around the couch in his way, Danny made his way to the second cabin door, which was completely closed and modestly secured with what appeared to be an antiquated mechanical latch, most likely augmented by an unseen hydraulic system beneath the floor and within the walls, judging from the aging and none-too-attractive-looking heavy lever set in the wall next to the portal. The space on the other side was completely silent, giving no sign of anyone's presence.

Satisfied that he didn't have to lever the door open and exert himself, he pulled the lever, let the door do its thing, and started peering indoors. He flicked nightvision on his mask back on, scanning the room for shapes first, then detail with a light next. At least he didn't have to worry about the lightshow making him blind.

The door groaned open rather loudly, particularly in the relative eerie quiet around him, but without too much trouble. Inside he saw a cabin that was very similarly sized and decorated to the previous one; same utilitarian bunk beds, same metal-framed desk and chair, and the same mobile wardrobe and dresser. This time, however, the desk and the big wardrobe were against the far wall, facing the entrance, and there were two smaller lockers on either side of Danny as he stood in the doorway. In the middle of the bulkhead to his right was yet another door, much like the one he'd just walked through.

However, this room looked mostly bare. There was a duffel bag lying on the floor and kicked just under the foot of the bottom bunk, but aside from that, there was no sign that this cabin was truly occupied, at least not permanently. The drawers and doors of the dresser and lockers were neatly closed, and without looking through them, it wasn't obvious whether or not they were empty.

Gears turned, LED lights flicked on and off as Danny rubbed his chinfluff underneath his suit, frowning. These guys didn't seem like pirates at all - the usual signs of rot and vice simply weren't present. He stepped into the room quietly and looked at the duffel bag, bending down and putting his fingertips on the bedframe. These people were more and more like civilians - who thought that swords looked cool. That aside, nothing else out of the ordinary to him.

Brushing his fingertips across the bedframe and across the corner of the mattress, the young man's little finger brushed against something solid concealed beneath the covers at the foot of the bed. It was relatively thin, but it ran for about the length of his forearm, almost like yet another bladed weapon.

He raised his pinky finger before gently placing it back down on what he'd found with his right hand on the bed. This place had a fighter after all, and someone who was sharp enough to remain paranoid in a house that didn't belong to them fully. Danny slowly drummed his little finger, tapping the surface of the blade, feeling for a handle. His other hand meanwhile started fossicking through the contents of the duffel bag. The blade was a curveball - they weren't complete civilians perhaps.

Finding the blade's handle positioned towards the head of the bed, Danny worked out its orientation. It was thin enough to remain concealed as long as the sheets weren't pulled too tightly, and a blanket was laid across the foot of the mattress, but it was positioned to be within easy reach should the occupant have need of it while they slept, or sat nearby. Without seeing it or holding it in his hand, he couldn't tell for certain whether or not it was just another ceremonial weapon like the ones bolted to the wall in the common room, but judging from the fact that it was concealed, it was a safe bet that this one was very real.

The duffel bag, though, was mostly empty, its former contents most likely packed away in the drawers and lockers nearby. There were, however, some miscellaneous odds and ends here and there that his hand discovered. Again, without seeing them directly, he couldn't tell for sure what they were, but they felt like a couple stray articles of clothing, one or two discarded and mostly crushed small cardboard boxes -- ammunition, perhaps? -- and a pair of very strangely-shaped things that felt like they could be shoes for a digitigrade being.

His fingers padded through the insides of the shoes, and he remembered that only a handful of beings in the universe had footprints like that. A gartagen had footprints like that, and they were travellers, a mostly-unknown to Danny at first, but he slowly picked up a little of the language and some of the customs. Gartagens loved communication, perhaps they were addicted to it. How do they keep their balance with fewer toes anyway? Danny wondered quietly as he looked directly at where his fingers in the bag, and pulled them out. He looked at the nearby lockers and opened them, one at a time. Nightvision deactivated and a shoulder-mounted torch turned on instead.

One of the lockers was completely empty. It wasn't apparent for how long, but the interior appeared largely free of dust and other settled particulates, giving him the impression that perhaps it had been recently used, or recently cleaned out. The other locker to his right was stuffed full of combat gear. On one side was a full suit of body armor tailored to the same Gartagen that the shoes he found were, most likely. The occupant, assuming the armor was in fact his, didn't appear to be very large or imposing, barely taller than five feet or so, and relatively lithe in build. Next to the armor was a small assortment of rifles and handguns, as well as several cases of various types of ammunition, and a small number of exotic-looking daggers and utility knives.

He closed the locker. There was definitely some form of soldier on board, a gartaten who was either self taught or former RRF. The sheshka blades amongst the combat utility knives weren't for show alone, and were deadly in the right hands. Five feet in good armour, swift as could be. "There's one soldier on board, gartagen, possibly former RRF," Danny relayed back to Desmond before seeing what the other, previous occupant was like. "Someone else looks like they moved out. No sign of them."

He looked to the door at the end of the hall, knew that it was the way to the second set of crew cabins and walked over, opening the latch on the door and pulling the door open. The other thing this ship didn't seem to have much of in spades was privacy. It must be terrible to be without a space that's really to yourself. Danny contemplated, and wondered what was around the corner. A captain and bounty; soldier, a Freespacer, a runner and whatever system was controlling the strobe lights so far... A colourful crew to be certain, just like all the others.

 

[Foxtrot 813]

Concordia Veil - Loading Ramp

"Just get in and keep out of sight," Desmond said, sighing as he took the bucket and held it besides him by its strap. The bounty hunter kept holding the device by its strap as he looked further down the expansive hangar, alert for anyone arriving. "Get to the cockpit and help Amanozako in whatever she needs," he added, bringing a finger to his earpiece to answer the neko. It seemed that everyone wanted a piece of him that day.

"Understood. Danny has found a good lead, so see if you can find anything else, we won't be long here," Desmond answered the neko, finally deciding to set the bucket down on top of the ramp. He quickly went for his tools, going about the process of removing the important - and incriminating - components from it.


Cabin 3

Meanwhile, over in the third series of cabins, and perhaps the most comfortable of them in a Jinsoku Cargo Runner was the suited skulk, peering into the room with torchlight rather than nightvision, the torches attached to his neck moving around the room as he leaned to look at all of the shapes - twin dressers, a desk, a pair of personal lockers and bunk beds. With white light leading his path, he was still looking for detail and information on the colourful crew of this ship. The lower bunk, aside from not being made, had several articles of clothing laying on it in a hapzard fashion, as well as a small, open book set with its pages looking down towards the mattress. The edge of a square, metallic box of sort also peeked from under it. The top bunk, by contrast, was almost immaculate, neatly made with mechanical precision, although a small stack of paperback novels, each of them worn, their covers curling, and their pages dog-eared in places were placed carefully in line with the square corner of the mattress near the pillow.

The books caught his eye first, white pages reflecting the LED lights and catching his attention first. The words "The Nepleslian Falcon" were clearly printed on top of each page; it wouldn't take much to figure that it was a noir novel. As he got closer to the bunk beds, Danny examined the top bunk to see if there were any signs of occupation. By his count, there weren't that many on ship, but he didn't rule out there being a couch surfer. The stack of novels on the top bunk caught his attention. Scholars of some sort - machine precise ones save for the condition they left the books in.

The book on his lower bunk, the detective novel made him raise an eyebrow. He knew that the stories were always a bit embelished, though he'd once lived out something worth one of those novels, maybe more. He turned the book over and mumbled a little, making sure whoever the reader was didn't lose their page. The cover was simple, made from a mechanical press, and besides the title, only had the author's name, and it was easy to tell that the book was new, besides the reader already having gone through half of the book.

Danny knew the Nepleslian Falcon. Good book. He examined what page its reader was on. Maybe they were on his favourite part, the bit where the dame walks in on the Detective with a gun, and she takes the eponymous Falcon from him. Something about it just seemed tense to Danny when he read it a long time ago. A dull ache in his forehead throbbing just a little, but it could have been just nerves on the job.

He put the book just to the side of the box it was resting on, then looked for a latch or some sort of security on it, and found out that it came open by simply pulling the top cover off. Inside of it, the box was divided into three compartments. The bigger one had, unsurprisingly, more Noir novels, one on top of the other. The other half of the box was divided in the two remaining compartments, although both seemed to have the same kind of things stored within: small junk.

The suited skulk's head begun to tilt to one side as he looked at the assorted trinkets. He held up a dried mushroom, and he didn't recognise it from anywhere, and it definitely didn't look like the edible sort. Beneath his mask, his eyes widened at the Reds logo he found.

His thoughts travelled inwards and he breathed, short and sharp as a life behind him came flooding back into his ears and his mind's eye like it was yesterday.

"Okay, Danny. Tell us the easiest way into the place, and I'll make sure you don't walk home with both legs broken. Whaddaya say?" Luca flashed his tactical map of the area in front of him and asked him where to point.

"Uh..." He mumbled as he looked around, trying to decipher it. "Mmm... Here!" He pointed to where one of the rivers, which was flowing into the base. "It's barred up, b-but I'm sure you can get in - really!"
"Promise? If not, I'll go looking for you, Danny!" Luca replied.
"Yes! Yes! Just don't break my legs!"

"...Promising not to have your legs broken is your fondest memory?"

Danny nodded, completely earnestly in reply.

"Really?"

"I didn't even like where I was anyway and I got away afterwards, so, yeah, he helped with that too." He was working for the Reds at that time as a footsoldier.

"Huh... Your fondest memory is not broken legs... We're going to have to fix that."

Maybe Franz succeeded after all. The rest of the trinkets, a pen light, a rolled up strip of magnesium ignition foil, and the optics from a Junker drone. Now he had a lead, whoever slept here was probably the ship's engineer, though the patch from the Reds could've signalled anything - either as a combat memento or as a former life left behind--

"Find anything else?" Desmond suddenly asked in the comms, breaking Danny's chain of thought.

Desmond heard a short, sharp breath before a silence pervaded communications again. "Two more, most likely to be engineering staff. I've searched the cabins." Danny relayed back to his employer. "I think the Gart is our most obvious threat. Fortunately, he'll be easiest to spot, or smell." Gartagens were also known for being quite pungent, especially noticeable in more sterile environments like Yamatai or Lor. There still seemed to be more in the box, tucked to another side. The third and final compartment seemed to have more personal belongings, but which were less random than the previous one; a rolled piece of paper kept that way by a red string - most likely some sort of diploma, a stack of small photos kept together by an elastic band, and a wooden portrait, facing down.

Danny gently removed the red string, shimmying it off of one side to look at the photographs. The rest of the box had personal mementos - maybe a face would help connect things. As the paper came open, it was possible for Danny to see that it was worse for wear, the paint used within it had mostly faded, despite the quality of the paper being good. It seemed that it had most likely gotten wet and then left to dry up. What little he could read, though, was that it, indeed, was some sort of diploma, as evidenced by the header that read:

We of the (...)academy (...)oud is hereby declared a qualified navigator, and is awarded this diploma with all honors and privileges pertaining thereto

"Understood," Desmond answered.

"I think the Engineer also does double duty as a navigator, so they probably wouldn't be far from the captain," Danny deduced. "They have a diploma here, saying they've got the skills."

"Fancy," the other bounty hunter replied.

Danny seemed to mumble as he rolled the diploma back up, put the ribbon back over it and put it away. "Not done yet, there's more," He relayed as he unbound the photographs and stood the wooden frame of the portrait up, keeping the elastic on his finger and stretching it between his thumb and middle finger in a fidget of concentration. Pulling the first picture closer, Danny saw that they were very personal indeed, but in the way of being the kind of pictures you didn't show anyone, not even an adult.

"ohmygoodnessisthatamelon?" Danny gasped into the communications out loud.

"What?" Desmond asked.

"Um-uh," Danny stammered as he could feel the fluid wicking on his suit depositing his sweat from his forehead and running down his featureless mask. "I may have dug too deep." I think I know someone who might like this back at Lazarus, but I'm not going to steal this. Danny's thoughts ran. Man, so many sick and weird people in the universe.

Thought the man wearing a skin tight, head to toe, form fitting, faceless, colour shifting suit that had 'inflated' when smoke needed to be built up and released.

"... Okay," the other bounty hunter replied in a matter-of-factly way.

Danny then flicked over to the next photo, and the next photo a moment later, and the next photo, and the next photo; so on so forth before returning to the first. He looked at his fingers for the band, and realised that in his fright, he'd dropped it. Hastily he examined the bedsheet and the floor for it, and after but a few seconds of frantic searching, he lost his grip on the stack of illicit pictures, sending them scattering to the floor. With a quiet gasp, he dropped down and snatched them up as quickly as possible in a near-panic. Sweeping them back into a stack, he spotted the band on the floor by his fingers and nabbed it, wrapping what he sincerely hoped were all of the photos back up. Finally, with a relieved sigh, he got a better look at the portrait, which was much more tame.

An old picture was framed within the portrait, looking even older than the diploma. The edges were wrinkled and several white streaks crisscrossed it from when it had been folded too many times. The picture showed two kids barely into their teens, standing beside one another, the first one was a girl, willowy and raven-haired, while the second one was a shorter, chubbier boy, also raven-haired. Both had bored expressions on their faces, with their arms crossed and leaning with their backs against a ship's bulkhead.

Brother and sister, then. Danny thought as he looked at the two children in the photo, his composure returning from the risque material before. Looks like a bad family vacation. He shrugged as he put the portrait back down, along with the pornographic materials, and the diploma, taking great pains to ensure that he'd left the contents as he'd found them before - at least as far as he knew. He then closed the lid, and was about to turn around and leave.

The Nepleslian Falcon. He grabbed it and gently placed it back on top of the box. There - now everything was as he'd left it - again, as far as he knew. "Alright, that's the cabins covered, Desmond." Danny relayed back to his employer. "I think I'll saunter through the holds for anything else that could be of interest."

"Be quick, we might have to leave in a hurry," the bounty hunter answered on the comms.

"Right," Danny replied back as he moved back the way he came.

 

[nite train]

Loading ramp to the Concordia Veil

With a nod to Desmond, Rathe wasted little time moving into the ship and making his way through the circular hallway that followed the ramp.

 

[Yoshi]

Bridge

When the external sensors and motion sizmogiggers said that the bot had been placed on the ground, Crash acted fast and reactivated the drivers to Its legs. Scittering quickly it went up the wall into air vent.

Crash thought for a moment once It was safely hidden in the air ducts, it took a moment to fire off some messages to two different communicators, and one quirky freespacer's wireless card.

Ship here. Under attack, intruders aboard.
Help please.
At least four people aboard me.
Will continue to make it difficult for them to steal me.

 

[nite train]

Cockpit - Concordia Veil

Knocking the wall next to the doorway to alert Amanozako, the golden skinned Nepleslian waved to her, "Desmond sent me here, anything I ca-" He cut himself off as he spotted motion out of the corner of his eye. "The hell? get back here!" Rathe commanded as he sprang to grab the insect. Unfortunately, he saw the spider too late as it had already escaped him through a vent up the wall. Rathe reached into the vent as far as he could, grazing the hind legs of the spider with his fingertips, but failing to apprehend it.

"Tch, almost had the bugger too... Eh, it couldn't have done too much without the ship's communications up, so I guess we should just let him hide..." Rathe spoke to himself aloud as he turned back to Amanozako, "Regardless, is there anything you need?"

 

[Floodwaters]

Concordia Veil - Cockpit

Amanozako turned and looked over her shoulder above her when Rathe entered, just seeing the golden man miss the skittering spider drone. A frown crossed her face. "Crap," she muttered. "Probably should have held onto him." Looking back at the console before her, which was now displaying little more of use than glitchy error messages, she tossed her hands up and sighed before reaching up to hoist herself out of the seat, and with a combination of her gravity manipulation and good old fashioned pulling on the overhead bar, climbed up onto the command platform. "No, this thing isn't going to give us much more, and I don't know if we have time to keep beating on it before your guests arrive."

A skittering noise in the ceiling could be heard, moving erratically overhead before fading away to nothing. But as the two of them pondered their next move, movement outside the cockpit's canopy caught Rathe's eye.

Standing on the deck of the hangar in front of the ship was a slender, clean-cut man in an official Origin uniform, waving his arms in wide arcs over his head to get their attention. And he looked more than a little irritated.

Amanozako muttered a curse under her breath before calling Desmond over the her wireless. "Looks like our visitors just arrived," she said. "Someone better go talk to them."

 

[nite train]

Cockpit - Concordia Veil

Rathe sighed, knowing Desmond would be the first to meet their unwanted visitors. "Is taking the ship and running too far out of the question?" Rathe asked Amanozako with a chuckle before sighing once more. 'How are we gonna handle this one?' the golden skinned nepleslian asked himself in his thoughts.

 

[Gunsight1]

Bridge

"Yes, it is out of the question" Amanozako replied. "Would be too much of a tip off to our mark if they were to come back and find their ship missing" she frowned and pulled herself out of the pilot seat. The ship's system was offline, so no reason to keep seated there, especially if there was going to be a firefight soon.

"What's the plan?" she asked Desmond via wireless

 

[Foxtrot 813]

Concordia Veil - Loading Ramp

"Be quiet the both of you," Desmond annoyedly as he watched the employee approach, quickly tapping the communicator with a finger as he finished removing the last critical piece of the jammer, quickly putting it in one of his pants pockets. He had to disarm the situation before the rest of their team decided to shoot their way out of this. The bounty hunter watched the Origin official coming closer in the corner of his vision, but kept sitting at the top of the ramp, using the 'bucket' as a makeshift seat.

 

[Floodwaters]

Concordia Veil - Cockpit

The Origin official outside the canopy, once he finally had Amanozako's and Rathe's attention, pointed with firm authority back towards the loading ramp, and the all-business look on his face made his message clear: he was commanding them and anyone else aboard to meet him there. With a scowl, he smartly turned on his heels and strode with a purpose out of their view.


Concordia Veil - Loading Ramp

After a moment, the official appeared at the foot of the ramp, but in keeping with the station's protocol, did not make any move to set so much as one foot on the ship. He didn't look like much, a man approaching middle age of very unremarkable height and a slight frame, but everything about him was crisp and tailored to perfection. His short cropped light brown hair was combed neatly to one side, his uniform appeared recently pressed and his shoes shined to a mirrored gleam, and not a single whisker was visible on his rounded face. However, although he didn't look like much of a physical threat, the two armed guards flanking him on either side helped complete the air of authority he exuded.

"Thad Greene, Origin Port Authority," he introduced himself in a manner that was less than friendly, squatting down just enough to make eye contact with Desmond from the bottom of the ramp. "Whatever your men are doing down here has been doing a real number on our beacons and comms. I need to know what's going on."

 

[nite train]

Cockpit - Concordia Veil

As Rathe realized how serious the station was taking this, he took off his headset and deactivated it, turning to Amanozako, "They might be listening to us over the communication channels. We shouldn't be using them when we don't have to." The nepleslian advised her.

 

[Floodwaters]

Concordia Veil - Loading Ramp

Desmond watched the trio approached with an uninterested expression despite intently watching the bodyguards as he tried to decide whether that was a show of force or that the official intended to do something with them. If he was. He would be in for a headache if it was the latter, because he no authority to inspect the ship, wheter tthe bounty hunter was the owner of it or not.

"Calibrating the sensors," he blurted out after a deliberately long moment of silence.

The official frowned. "Calibrating the sensors," he mused in a flat echo. "What kind of calibrations do you have to do to this--" he continued, regarding the aging Jinsoku with derision, "--this thing that cause it to blast out a blanket of constant EM noise for almost three solid minutes?"

"The faulty kind," he replied, this time almost instantly.

"Faulty," Greene repeated again, narrowing one eye. "Is it under control?"

"Isn't the noise gone?"

"I'm asking the questions here, sir," the man snipped, eyeing the bucket on which Desmond was sitting. "And may I ask what that is you're sitting on?"

"Faulty equipment," Desmond replied. In a way, he wasn't lying; without the components that he had removed the bucket was just pieces of a starfighter grade sensors that he had put together to make the jammer, it would be essentially a transmitter.

"Really," Greene responded flatly, and crossed his arms, while Desmond simply propped an elbow against one of his legs, supporting his head with a hand. "Our security feed suggests it might be something else. Any ideas as to what they think?"

"Your security feeds," the bounty hunter started to say, trying to mimick the official's tone in the way that only Nepleslians could when they tried to make fun of the Yamataians. "Sounds like it needs calibrations. I'm all up for hire if you want, my rates aren't all that high," he added.

Judging from the way the man's cheek twitched, it was fairly apparent that he was trying to maintain his professional, if somewhat condescending veneer to conceal his increasing frustration with the uncooperative Nepleslian. For a moment, the official didn't respond with anything more than a tight lipped smirk. Finally he shook his head and sighed. "Your name, sir?" he asked.

"Why?" Desmond asked, leaning backwards until his back was straight and setting his hands on his knees.

Greene's smirk smugly broadened. "Because I would like to know if you are registered as the ship's crew, or if I need to have you arrested for trespassing, sir."

The bounty hunter smirked in return, still staring down at the dock official and his body guards.

 

[nite train]

Bridge - Concordia Veil

Rathe looked over to Amanozako once more before standing up and moving back to the entrance of the cockpit, "We should be ready to help him if he needs us." Rathe advised her as he returned his headset to his ear. The golden skinned Nepleslian, still wary of unwanted listeners, kept the microphone to the headset up away from his mouth.

 

[Gunsight1]

Bridge

Amanozako frowned and followed goldenrod out of the cramped bridge. "I'd be surprised as hell if they could break my scrambling code" she commented, frownimg as she mulled over the possible outcomes of dealing with this Origin pencil pusher. Most were awkward at best and ended with lots of gunfire.

 

[Luca]

Concordia Veil, Common Room
Danny wasn't sure what to do with the threat of direct confrontation from someone who was discerning enough to look through disguises and thin pretences. There was no way which occurred to the skinny bounty hunter which could do anything to soften this situation, much less lie about it. He dared not show himself just yet, because someone could just walk right into the corridors and see him.

He stayed in the darkness and relative safety of the Common Room for now, evaluating the situation as he heard it unfold in his ear and just around the corner, and he felt for his baton, ready to strike if the need arose - it could well arise just soon. A late realisation struck Danny as he rolled the Baton in his hands - he had no lethal armament on him - unless perhaps he turned his target's skull into a consistency of round candy with a baton - but with his average strength it was highly unlikely. His pulse was starting to race beneath the mask.

 

[Floodwaters]

Concordia Veil - Loading Ramp

When Desmond didn't immediately answer him, Greene's eyebrows began to slowly raise, adding to the already smug satisfaction all over his face at what he was evidently increasingly certain was leading to an arrest. The official's arms folded impatiently over his chest as he squared his stance from his hunched position beneath the hull, meeting Desmond's cool stare without concern. "Very well then," he said after a pause, then glanced over his shoulder at one of the armed guards flanking him, nodding curtly up the ramp. The sharp click of weapons being armed rang out through the metallic walls, and the guards began to advance up the walkway, followed closely behind by the official. One of them trained his weapon on Desmond and held his position, well outside of arm's reach and blocking the exit, while the other one continued along a path that would take him past the bounty hunter and into the ship.

"Keep your hands where I can see them and stay where you are," Greene commanded as he followed the second guard. "I'm going to have a look around this vessel, find your other compatriots. Then the three of us can have a nice long chat at ORISEC about what you were doing here."


Concordia Veil - Common Room

A sharp skittering sound from the ceiling startled Danny. It started somewhere near the galley, then quickly advanced towards him, suddenly turning a corner and clattering off towards the middle of the cabins. If he didn't know better, he would swear it sounded like some sort of inorganic insect.

 

[Foxtrot 813]

Concordia Veil - Loading Ramp

As soon as the official and his henchmen started stepping up the ramp, Desmond got up on his feet, kicking the partially dismantled jammer with the heel of his feet away into the halway behind him in feigned, but at first look genuine, outrage as the jamming-bucket fell back on its side with a clatter. Dodging dock officials and inspectors was something he had seen done on several stations and one of the first things he learned as soon as he started working on ships himself. "What the fuck do you think you're doing!? I didn't consent to this shit and you have no authority to board any ships unless I tell you it's okay or you have a warrant," the bounty hunter said, not raising his hands and not stepping away either.

He quickly looked at the two security escorts, scanning for their expressions, and then back at the official before he continued. "So you either show me this warrant or fuck the hell off back to tagging crates in the loading docks," Desmond said.

At the sudden outburst, both of the security guards' weapons were leveled immediately on the bounty hunter, the tension levels around them skyrocketing so high it was a wonder one of them didn't shoot him on reflex. Greene simply froze in his tracks, having advanced just far enough to clear the overhang and stand up. He was obviously caught off guard by Desmond's angry tirade, and very clearly displeased by the lack of respect he was being shown, but from the way his jaw worked back and forth, it was apparent he knew he'd been called out on overstepping his bounds, no matter how much he didn't like it. For a few terse seconds, the official simply glowered up at the bounty hunter, fuming and gritting his teeth together as he considered his next move. The guards remained still and coiled for action, staring down the barrels of their pistols and just waiting for an excuse to put the uppity stranger down.

The bounty hunter, meanwhile, stared at the guns pointed at him. His heart rate skyrocketed, but curiously enough his hands remained steady despite that. "All these guns and no bullets, innit?" He said, looking at one of the armed guards.

The three men stared icily at Desmond for several seconds, until Greene motioned for the guards to lower their weapons, but never took his eyes from the bounty hunter. The guards reluctantly holstered their guns, and with another silent nod of his head back the way they'd come, they backed down the ramp, falling in at the official's flanks once more. "We'll be keeping an eye on you," Greene said in a professional tone, but the underlying threat was unmistakable. "If you so much as spit in the wrong place while you're on Dawn, you'll regret it. One misstep, and you're mine."

Greene snapped his fingers, ordering the guards out of the rampway, which they obeyed like trained dogs. The official glared at Desmond for another second before turning to duck out of the ship. Just before he disappeared from sight, he turned back around to face him, and pointed a finger back up the ramp from his hunched position. "One misstep."

Desmond waited until the two guards and the official were out of sight before he remembered to breathe again. The bounty hunter let out a long sigh as he leaned his side against one of the walls. "God... Damn," he said, before bringing a finger again to his earpiece. "Alright, everyone pack your stuff and get ready to leave," he transmitted.

 

[Luca]

Concordia Veil, Common Room
Danny could hear more footsteps, more things moving around without him knowing where or who, more unknowns, more variables to consider - and something skittering through the dark common room. Butterflies were beginning to flutter in his stomach as he found himself mentally treading water until it all became quiet again. Finally, something concrete came through his earpiece - an order to get ready to run.

"O-Okay." Danny said as he reaffirmed that he had the paper stashed in the little backpackpack that sat in the small of his back, supported by. "I've got what I need but I think there's a, uh, bug in the room."

He was a little too hasty to specify what sort - whether it was a big spider on the walls, a graphical bug on one of the monitors making it display something incorrectly or a surveillance bug that was looking at him. Fortunately, he had no face or identifying features on his suit visually - save for being a man clad head to toe in a strange looking suit that wouldn't be out of place in a very, very blue video.

"What should I do with it?"

 

[nite train]

Bridge - Concordia Veil

Rathe turned to Amanozako, "Do you think it's our bug?" he asked her as he brought the microphone of his headset back to his mouth and spoke into it. "If you mean insect bug, we found one of those on the bridge, but it got away from us, so we may be talking about the same bug." he advised the other hunters.